USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 41
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 41
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also of five acres, jointly owned between them, located between East E and D streets on the Campus.
In 1910 Mrs. Stoner bought 150 acres of wild, rocky land, and in 1912 bought 130 acres adjoining. This land is at the mouth of Palmer Canyon, near Claremont. The water supply comprises a twelve-inch gravity flow and also a well affording fifteen inches additional. This tract Mrs. Stoner has improved with house and barn, and for a number of years operated it as a successful dairy farm, until failing health com- pelled her to desist from the work. She directed the labors of Hindus in dynamiting and clearing up the rock, and she constructed and directed the building of three-quarters of a mile of the New Camp Baldy Road, paying for all the labor and getting the task done for three hundred dollars less than the same distance constructed by the Pomona Protection Association. This property when purchased was considered worthless by Mrs. Stoner's friends, but her good judgment has been proved in the fact that it is one of the choicest sites in the frostless fruit belt, and is also valuable for its scenic attractions.
THOMAS H. LACKEY .- A remarkably eventful career has been that of this honored pioneer citizen of the Rialto district of San Bernardino County. He was born in Carlton County, Province of Ontario, Canada, at a point eighteen miles from the city of Ottawa, and the date of his nativity was March 27, 1852. Mr. Lackey is a son of Averil Cooper Lackey and Ellen (Johnston) Lackey, the former a native of Canada and the latter of County Antrim, Ireland, where she was born near Dublin. In the family were eight sons and three daughters, all of whom attained to maturity, married and became well established in life. The father was a farmer and carpenter in Canada, where he passed his entire life and where his wife likewise died.
Thomas H. Lackey was reared on the home farm to the age of four- teen years, his mother having taught him to read and write, and at times he attended the local school for brief intervals. He had to walk a distance of three miles to the little schoolhouse of the neighborhood, and as the winters in that section of Canada are cold, with much snow, he found it impossible to attend school regularly during the winter terms, while in the summer seasons he assisted in the work of the home farm. At the age of fourteen years he left the parental roof and was elsewhere employed one year. He then returned home, where he remained until he was nine- teen years of age. In the meantime he learned the carpenter's trade under the direction of his father, who was a contractor in the erection of houses and other buildings, the timber of which was gotten out from the neighbor- ing forests during the winter and spring, prior to the putting in of the crops on his farm. At the age of nineteen years Thomas H. Lackey went to the city of Ottawa, Canada, where he followed his trade five years. within which he took unto himself a wife, in 1873. In Ottawa he built up the leading wholesale and retail confectionery business, and this he was successfully conducting, with a corps of seventeen employes, when he sacrificed the entire business, in 1884, to enter the service of the English Government in connection with a most important and hazardous expedition. On the 15th of September of that year he left Ottawa as a member of a company of 400 men engaged by the English Government to go to the rescue of General Gordon in Egypt. The expedition made its way up the Nile River with 900 small boats- sail and row boats- and after reaching a point above Cortie the members of the company found that the gallant General Gordon had been killed. Mr. Lackey was absent on this expedition for a period of nine months, his service being in the transportation of British soldiers up the Nile. For this service
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he received a medal from Queen Victoria, the famous expedition having been in command of General Woolesley. From the Khedive of Egypt Mr. Lackey received also the star and crescent medal of that country. He was permitted to make a tour of the Khedive's palace and gardens in the City of Cairo. He went to Assuam, Egypt, by railroad and thence by river boat to Wada Halfa, he having been in Egypt at the time when the engineers were surveying in connection with the construction of the great dam on the Nile. He was in the best of health and thus proved immune when he nursed smallpox patients who were stricken on the expedition. It may well be understood that Mr. Lackey retains pleasing memories of this historic expedition in which he took part, and that he prizes the tangible souvenirs of the same. After his return to his home in Canada he there remained until 1886, when he came with his family to San Bernar- dino County, California, where he remained five years. He then took a homestead claim on Lytle Creek, and on this ranch he remained nine years, within which he developed and otherwise improved the property. He then returned to San Bernardino County. Upon his establishing his residence at Rialto he erected the first bakery building in the town, on the present Riverside Avenue. This he rented. There were at that time very few houses in the village and he became foremost in organizing the Rialto Building & Improvement Company, of which he continued presi- dent until the organization was permitted to lapse, after having admirably served its purpose. As a representative of this company he erected a number of houses, and he continued in business as a contractor and builder for many years. Mr. Lackey diversified his California experience by two years of desert gold-mining near Randsburg, Kern County. and he made also an extended prospecting trip in Mexico. He has been a constructive force in connection with civic and material development and progress in San Bernardino County, and here has secure place ir. popular confidence and esteen.
On December 23, 1873, Mr. Lackey married Miss Mary Edith Wyse, who was born at Montreal, Canada, April 21, 1854, a daughter of James and Julia (Sharp) Wyse, both natives of Scotland, where their marriage was solmnized and whence they immigrated to Canada in 1852. To Mr. and Mrs. Lackey have been born nine children, four having been born in San Bernardino County. Of the number only three attained to maturity : Julia R., who was born in 1874. is the wife of Frank Lingo, and they have one child, Gladys Lillian, born February 11, 1904. Averil Albert Lackey, who was born June 20, 1876, maintains his home at Rialto. He married Margaret Easton, a representative of an honored pioneer family of San Bernardino County. Miss Ruby Ethel Lackey, who was born September 3, 1887. was educated in the public schools, including the San Bernardino High School, and in the San Bernardino Business College, in which she was graduated. She became a most efficient young business woman, was for a number of years employed in the office of an orange packing house at Rialto, whence she was called to the Sun Office at San Bernardino. In that city she later held a responsible executive position in the Index newspaper office, and there- after she gave similar service in the office of the San Bernardino Sun. She was uniformly admired for her exceptional ability and was loved for her gracious personality, so that all who knew her felt a sense of personal bereavement when she passed to the life eternal on the 15th of November, 1918.
SAMUEL EARLE BLAKESLEE .- The name Blakeslee has received na- tional recognition in musical affairs, but its solid foundation of fame
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rests in Southern California, where Samuel Earle Blakeslee and his father, Samuel H. Blakeslee, have been teachers and musical directors for nearly twenty years.
Samuel Il. Blakeslee, who devoted his active life to the profession of teacher of voice and chorus director, graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory, and from 1884 to 1898 was Dean of the Ohio Wesleyan Conservatory at Delaware, Ohio. From 1898 to 1904 he was Dean of the University of Denver Conservatory, and in these two positions became widely known and gave an important contri- bution to the success of the two conservatories. On leaving Denver he removed to Los Angeles. His wife, Ida Bevington Blakeslee, who died in 1912, was pianist and organist and a successful teacher. She was a graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory and the Oberlin Conservatory, taught in the latter, and was head of the piano depart- ment at Ohio Wesleyan and Denver Conservatories, and also in Pomona College of California.
Samuel Earle Blakeslee was born at Oberlin, Ohio, November 2, 1883, and in his musical studies he had the care and supervision of his gifted father and mother in the various departments of voice, piano and organ. He acquired his literary education in the University of Denver, in the University of Texas, and graduated A. B. from Pomona College of California in 1908. He also studied music in Ohio Wesleyan University and the University of Denver, and was a pupil in composition of Henry Houseley, the composer, and studied voice with F. A. Bacon, William Shakespeare and Oscar Saenger of New York.
Mr. Blakeslee was for a time an instructor in the University of Denver Conservatory, and from 1906 to 1911 was an instructor in the Pomona College Conservatory. In 1913 he entered the field of public school music as supervisor at Longmont, Colorado, where he remained until 1916. During 1914-16 he was also director of the Colorado Chau - tauqua Music.
The portion of his career which deserves special recognition in this history has been his service as director of the music department of the Chaffey Union High School and Junior College at Ontario since 1916. Under his administration the Chaffey Music Department has attained a first rank among similar institutions throughout the state. In his work here Mr. Blakeslee has been greatly aided by the broad minded policy of the Chaffey school trustees and by Principal M. E. Hill. This aid has been particularly useful in the matter of equipment. This equipment includes a splendid new twenty thousand dollar pipe organ, in the securing of which the energetic policies of Mr. Blakeslee were in no small degree responsible.
During the World war Mr. Blakeslee did a great deal of volunteer work as a community song leader and member of concert parties in various camps, including Camp Kearney. He was a Four-Minute Speaker during the Liberty Loan drives, and active as a committeeman and lay worker in the Red Cross and other campaigns. He is a progressive republican in politics, a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Denver, and is a member of the El Camino Real Club and Red Hill Country Club at Ontario, and a member of the Gamut Club of Los Angeles.
As a choral director Mr. Blakeslee has given to the public some of the largest works, such as the Messiah, Samson and Delilah, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, Death of Minnehaha. He is also in- terested in original research work in American music, and has spent
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considerable time studying the music of the Navajo Indians on their New Mexico Reservation. Besides his other duties he has served as director of the Chaffey Community Chorus and of the Pomona Community Chorus.
At Claremont, California, October 14, 1909, Mr. Blakeslee married Miss Florence Hill, daughter of Rev. Charles W. Hill, now of LaMesa, California. Her father, a distinguished minister, gifted writer and speaker, is a graduate of Bowdoin College of Maine, Yale Divinity School, spent three years as a missionary to Hawaii, and has been active in church and educational affairs in California. Mrs. Blakeslee is a graduate of Pomona College with the class of 1909, is a soprano soloist, and has been associated with Mr. Blakeslee in teaching and the promotion of the musical interests of Ontario. They have one son, Earle Bevington Blakeslee, born June 23, 1913.
WILBUR ADRIAN FISKE .- Of an active career of more than thirty years devoted to education, Professor Fiske has spent about fifteen years in Southern California. He holds the important chair of geology and chemistry in Junior College at Ontario and is also librarian of the Chaffey Library.
He was born at Ashland, Ohio, August 19, 1866, son of John Wilbur and Arminda Alice Fiske. His mother was of German ancestry. John Wilbur Fiske, who was a Union soldier and died just as the Civil war came to an end, was descended from the stock of the Pilgrim Fathers. One branch of his ancestry was the Yocums, a long English line, some of whom came over in the Mayflower. The ancestral line also includes William Penn and others who settled the Pennsylvania colony. The Yocums were largely school teachers or ministers of the Gospel, and the Fiskes have contributed many names to the same professions.
Wilbur Adrian Fiske completed his liberal education after he had done some teaching. He graduated in 1886 from Fort Wayne College, received a degree from DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana, in 1889, and subsequently did post-graduate work at Harvard University leading up to the degree A. M. His studies at DePauw Normal School were chiefly in preparation for teaching. Prior to coming to California Mr. Fiske among other engagements of his professional career was superintendent of schools at Owensville, Indi- ana, two years and one year at Liberty Mills, Indiana, and for sixteen years was teacher of physics and chemistry in the Richmond. Indiana, High School. His service in the cause of education in California comprised seven years as professor of geology and mineralogy in Occidental College at Los Angeles, while for the past eight years he has been professor of geology and chemistry in Junior College of Ontario.
. In addition to his teaching he has considerable administrative work, including the duties of librarian of the Chaffey Library. This Library has an endowment of $85,000.00, and is affiliated with the Chaffey Union High School and Junior College. While a more complete account of this educational institution appears on other pages, it should be noted that the high school has an enrollment of eight hundred pupils, the Junior College, three hundred, and the night schools have also been conducted for the benefit of the large number of people in the community.
Professor Fiske's interests and activities have been almost entirely in the field of politics and educational work. He served as president
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of the Department of Science Instruction, National Educational As- sociation, in 1903; has been a member of the American Association for the advancement of Science since 1900; in 1908 he organized the California Science Association. As a scientist he is author of a Physical Laboratory Manual, published in 1902, and in 1920 another book appeared under his authorship, entitled Amenities of Books. He is a member of the literary and social organizations known as the New Century Club of Pasadena and the El Camino Real Club of Ontario. He is a republican voter and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
At Greencastle, Indiana, November 7, 1889, Professor Fiske mar- ried Miss Edna Bayne, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Bayne. Her father throughout his active life has been a lumberman and is still in that business in Louisiana. Mrs. Fiske was reared at Greencastle, the seat of DePauw University, and is a graduate of that institution. Professor and Mrs. Fiske have two children, Donald Bayne Fiske and Elizabeth Alice Fiske, both unmarried.
HIRAM CLARK .- A man's value to his community is not measured by the amount of his wealth, for, notwithstanding the fact that money begets money and that one who possesses large means affords employ- ment to others, unless such a man is imbued with a high sense of civic responsibility and strives to render to his fellow citizens a constructive service he does not live up to the best standards of citizenship. The men whose names are recorded on the pages of history are those who have sought to accomplish something of note, and the ones who are held in high esteem by their own and succeeding generations are the ones who have put aside personal advancement and labored to bring about changes designed to result in benefit to the majority. One of the names which stands out in the history of San Bernardino County is that borne by Hiram Clark, for he has made it an honored and representative one and connected it with a high order of public service. He was the first man in this region who realized the practicality of building substantial roads over the mountains, and much of the improvements in this line are due to his effective efforts. In many other ways he has aided in the work of developing the county, and is held today as one of the most valuable assets the county possesses. Especially has he been interested in the work in the Highland, and owns and maintains a beautiful home on Base Line.
Hiram Clark was born at Salt Lake City, Utah, December 3, 1850, a son of Hiram and Thankful Clark, natives of Vermont and New York, respectively. They moved to Illinois, where they were residing when gold was discovered in California, and were among the first couples to start on the weary trail across the plains, traveling in a covered wagon drawn by oxen. They stopped in Salt Lake City, where their son Hiram was born, and from there journeyed to Sacramento, which they reached late in 1850. The father was an Evangelical preacher, who had made several trips to England on Mission work in behalf of the Latter Day Saints, and was in San Bernardino when he died, Hiram Clark then being only three years old. His widow also died in San Bernardino. Of their eight children Hiram Clark is the only survivor, and he was the youngest born.
Losing his father when he was so young, Hiram Clark had few opportunities to attend school, but in after life has added to his store of knowledge by close observation and varied experiences, and is
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today a very well-informed man, with a keen conception of human nature. His life has been a strenuous one and filled with the most arduous of hard work. When still a child he began helping in farm work, but early drifted to the desert, and for five years was engaged in freighting. In this difficult occupation he had many thrilling experiences which developed his character and self reliance. Disposing of his interests, he then engaged in the retail liquor business, first at Ivanpah, where he remained for two years, and then at New Camp Providence, where he remained for two years. He then formed a partnership with I. R. Brum, and for eleven years was successfully engaged in business at San Bernardino.
With some of the money his wife had saved for him during those eleven years, in February. 1887, Mr. Clark bought the squatters right to 160 acres of wild and unimproved land on Deer Creek, Cienega, from McHaney, and this he homesteaded, securing his Government patent five years later, and this is the world-famous Clark ranch. From the first he made improvements, erecting buildings and putting in crops, and his first materials were packed up Santa Ana Canyon. This he later, at great personal expense, widened to a wagon trail. He and his sons worked on it for three years, putting in all of the fords. A man with very practical ideas, he set out a large apple orchard and did general farming on his ranch, and ran stock on the range. His apples took first prize at the Saint Louis Fair in 1904. The wagon trail made by Mr. Clark and his sons was finally taken over by San Bernardino County and developed into the present automobile road under Supervisor West, but Mr. Clark with characteristic public spirit furnished much of the material and men at his own expense so as to have a good road made in the county. Subsequently he built the famous Clark Grade, mountain road. which he located with his eye, no surveying being done, and this is a marvel, as is all of the road building he has done, which extended over a period of eleven years, during which time he worked in behalf of the county without any remuneration, and is satisfied with what he accomplished for it. as indeed he has every reason to be, for there are very few men who have reared so permanent and useful a monument to themselves. In spite of the fact that he had no technical training and no outside experience his work is so perfect that no changes have since been made, nor has any engineer working in this region produced any effects in any way equaling his. both as to the quality of his work and the cost of construction. With- out doubt he is one of the natural geniuses in this line, and, although he has accomplished so much in the walk of life in which his feet have been set, many regret that he was not given the training in his youth which would have led him to enter the profession of a civil engineer for they feel that the country would have reaped some wonderful results if he had.
In addition to his wonderful achievements in road building Mr. Clark continued ranching for thirty-three years. During that long period he saw many changes. In the beginning he and his son had to pack on horses over the rough mountain trail every article needed for the ranch. The machinery had to be taken apart and then re- assembled after it had been hauled, with increditable labor, up the mountain trail. Only a man of indomitable persistence and strength of character could have surmounted these difficulties. In 1874 Mr. Clark bought five acres on Base Line, between G and I streets, and
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this he now makes his home, having sold his ranch to his son-in-law, H. G. English, and has now practically retired from business. How- ever, it is impossible for a man of his caliber to remain inactive, and he is now giving considerable attention to his duties in the control office at Harvey's Control on Mill Creek Road, and is there rendering, as usual, a real public service. For forty-five years Mr. Clark has been a zealous member of Phoenix Lodge No. 178, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and his wife belongs to Silver Wave Chapter No. 75, Order of Eastern Star. Mr. Clark is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On September 4, 1870, he married Laura Ellen Case, who was born at San Bernardino, March 10, 1855, a daughter of Gashum and Samantha (Wells) Case, natives of Ohio. They were among the first settlers in Utah, having made the long trip across the plains with oxen. They, like the Clarks, belonged to the True Latter Day Saints, and were most worthy people and good citizens. At the time Mr. and Mrs. Clark were married they had but three dollars in money, but possessed good health and strength, a willingness to work, and had unbounded faith in each other. During their more than fifty years together they have never placed a mortgage on anything, nor have they owed for a single article for which they could not pay. As the years went on Mr. Clark learned that his wife was the best economist of the two, and so formed the practice of turning the money over to her to save, and recognizes the fact that to her thrift and good management is due much of his success in life. From her he has always received an understanding encouragement and apprecia- tion, and together they have reared their four children to be one- hundred percent Americans and useful men and women, in whom they take a natural pride.
The eldest of these children, Hiram Wallace Clark, was born July 4, 1873, and was reared on the home ranch, where under his father's watchful supervision he learned to be an expert agricul- turalist, and is now one of the leading cattlemen of Clark County, Nevada. He married Miss Emma Stuart, a member of the well-known Stuart family of Kentucky, and they have one child, Hiram Stuart Clark, who was born September 11, 1914.
Grace Aphalena Clark, the second child born to Hiram Clark and his wife, February 24, 1876, was educated at San Bernardino, and was there married to H. G. English, and they have two children, namely : Helen Grace English, who was born in Seoul, Corea, February 20, 1904 ; and Henry Clark English, who was born at San Bernardino, September 17, 1910. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. English sailed for Corea, where he was sent from San Francisco to take charge as electrical engineer of the mines, railroad and general electrical construction of the English-American Electrical Construction Com- pany, with headquarters at Seoul, and is responsible for some of the most important electrical construction work in Corea. Returning later to the United States, he purchased, as before stated, the ranch of Mr. Clark, and he is also a large property owner in the City of San Bernardino.
The third child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Clark is Fay Goodsell Clark, and he was born September 13, 1884, and he is exceptionally well educated. After having been graduated from the San Bernardino High School he took a three-year course at Occidental College, Los Angeles, following which he did two years' post-graduate work, and then went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and entered the University of
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